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By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

About
This List

Please refer to the Top
Ten
Free-to-Play Games Portal to find out how to get a game you
make or like on this list.

Month in Review

The Top Ten had three major changes this month. First, style="font-style: italic;">Deco Online broke
in at number 6, knocking Requiem:
Bloodymare off of the list. My infatuation with style="font-style: italic;">Deco quickly faded
once I got beyond the tutorial. While the game has a fun skill tree
system, it is really a grind from level 10 on. By then end of July, I
felt like the #10 slot where Deco
sits could also easily go back to Requiem
or even Fiesta Online.
Deco and style="font-style: italic;">Fiesta are a lot
alike in that they make great introductions
to massively-multiplayer online games for teens. style="font-style: italic;">Deco has a better
skill system while Fiesta
has a better story. Requiem
is a mature game filled with blood and dark images. It just becomes a
colossal grind after level 20.

The second major change this month was the death of style="font-style: italic;">Mythos. I had begun
to suspect something was wrong when production seemed to grind to a
halt in June. I was worried that the switch to a persistent over world,
which still believe was the right direction for the game, was causing
too many problems and putting the game back into an alpha phase. It
turned out that things were much worse that I imagined, and Flagship
Studios was in serious financial problems. In the end, style="font-style: italic;">Mythos was shut
down and labeled as on "hiatus." It was a terrific game--better than
many games that charge a subscription. I am sad that it is dead and
will no longer be in the Top Ten.

The final major change in July was the emergence of style="font-style: italic;">Atlantica Online.
I'd been watching the news about this strategy game from NDOORS with
cautious optimism. Once I tried the beta, I was blown away. style="font-style: italic;">Atlantica
has a decent story, exciting combat, and solid graphics. It debuted at
#1 near the end of July and will surely remain there for a while.

The List

For the month of August, I have at least three games on my radar. A
reader suggested Cabal
Online a few weeks back, so that is first. The folks at
Codemasters contacted me and asked that I give style="font-style: italic;">Archlord
a try. Since it dropped the subscription component, I have been
thinking about it anyway. It comes second. After that, my pick is style="font-style: italic;">Red Stone. If I get
extra time, I will look at the Perfect
World International beta to see if the translation and
controls are any better.

Here are my Top Ten Free-to-Play Games for July 2008.

Disclaimer:
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of
the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.

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colspan="4" rowspan="1"> style="color: white; font-weight: bold;">Top Ten
Free-to-Play Games

July 31, 2008 style="text-align: center; width: 75px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;">Rank style="text-align: center; width: 75px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;">Previous style="text-align: center; width: 105px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;"> style="width: 334px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;">Game

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